Stereo logo insertion

ABSTRACT

A method for inserting a logo into a stereo video image to generate an overlaid stereo image, the method comprising: detecting presence of stereo pictures in the video image and, when stereo pictures are detected, determining the 3D format of said stereo pictures, said 3D format being a stereo spatially multiplexed format; generating a stereo logo comprising stereo spatially multiplexed logo pictures including a representation of the logo, said stereo spatially multiplexed logo pictures being arranged in said 3D format; and combining the stereo logo and the video image to generate the overlaid stereo image in said 3D format.

This application claims the benefit, under 35 U.S.C. §365 ofInternational Application PCT/US2010/000480, filed Feb. 19, 2010, whichwas published in accordance with PCT Article 21(2) on Aug. 25, 2011, inEnglish.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to image processing and display systems, and moreparticularly, to a system and method for inserting an object such as alogo into video content and, more particularly, for inserting a logoonto stereo spatially interleaved three dimensional (3D) pictures.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Logo insertion devices and techniques are widely available forcommercial and non-commercial applications dealing exclusively with twodimensional (2D) images and video. In these applications, the sourcepicture and a logo picture are input to a device which combines theinputs to form an output 2D picture. This output 2D picture includes thelogo overlaid or blended with the source picture. Transparency, size,color, and position of the logo are generally parameters capable ofbeing programmed to effect a change in the appearance of the logo in theoutput picture.

Logo insertion for 2D images is known to be performed on uncompressedvideo or on video in the compressed domain. In both cases, the logoinsertion is typically accomplished without requiring decoding andre-encoding the image bit stream. For example, the Thomson Grass ValleyCrystal Logo Inserter performs still and animated logo insertiondirectly in the MPEG-2 compressed video domain, thereby avoiding anydecoding and re-encoding of the 2D signals. Other logo insertionproducts are commercially available for inserting a logo into a 2Dimage. In general, the logo picture is combined directly with thecontent picture so that the video output image frame includes thecontent with the logo properly placed thereon for 2D processing anddisplay.

However, current commercially available logo insertion techniques anddevices are not applicable for logo insertion into a stereo image, thatis, a 3D image. That is, it has been determined that insertion of a logointo a 3D image by conventional logo insertion techniques will result inthe presence of undesirable effects such as logo distortion and thelike.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

These and other deficiencies of the prior art are addressed by variousembodiments of the present invention by providing a method forgenerating a stereo logo comprising stereo spatially interleaved logopictures, each stereo spatially interleaved logo picture including arepresentation of the logo, wherein the stereo spatially interleavedlogo pictures are arranged in the spatially interleaved format. When thevideo image is processed for logo insertion, it is subjected todetection for the presence of pictures in the video image, wherein thestereo spatially interleaved pictures for the video image are arrangedin a spatially interleaved format. After the stereo logo is generated,it is combined with the video image to generate the overlaid image inthe spatially interleaved format. The overlaid image is suitable forstorage, display, or distribution.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for inserting alogo into a video image to generate an overlaid image includes detectingpresence of stereo spatially interleaved pictures in the video image,the stereo spatially interleaved pictures for the video image beingarranged in a spatially interleaved format, generating a stereo logocomprising stereo spatially interleaved logo pictures including arepresentation of the logo, the stereo spatially interleaved logopictures arranged in the spatially interleaved format and combining thestereo logo and the video image to generate the overlaid image in thespatially interleaved format.

In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, the method canfurther include analyzing the video image to determine the spatiallyinterleaved format by detecting at least one seam in said video imagewhere the at least one seam can include a horizontal seam and where thespatially interleaved format includes one of a top-bottom format, aninterlaced format, and a checkerboard format and further can includewhere the at least one seam includes a vertical seam and where thespatially interleaved format includes one of a side-by-side format, aninterlaced format, and a checkerboard format.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The teachings of the present invention can be readily understood byconsidering the following detailed description in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary set of input and output images for prior art(non-stereo) logo insertion;

FIG. 2 depicts a set of stereo views combined into a single stereo (3D)image frame;

FIG. 3 depicts the logo insertion processing of a stereo image framewith a conventional logo and the subsequent extraction of the two stereoviews including the logo in accordance with conventional logo insertionpractices;

FIG. 4 depicts the logo insertion processing of a stereo image framewith a stereo logo and the subsequent extraction of the two stereo viewsincluding the logo in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 depicts a plurality of exemplary simplified stereo (3D) imageformats and the extraction of two image views in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 depicts a flow diagram of a method for inserting a logo into avideo image to generate an overlaid image in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

It should be understood that the drawings are for purposes ofillustrating the concepts of the invention and are not necessarily theonly possible configuration for illustrating the invention. Tofacilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used,where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to thefigures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention advantageously provides a system and method forstereo logo insertion. Although the present invention is describedprimarily within the context of a video processor and displayenvironment, the specific embodiments of the present invention shouldnot be treated as limiting the scope of the invention. It will beappreciated by those skilled in the art and informed by the teachings ofthe present invention that the concepts of the present invention can beadvantageously applied in substantially any video-based processingenvironment such as, but not limited to, television, transcoders, videoplayers, image viewers, set-top-box or any software-based and/orhardware-based implementations useful for combining text with 3Dcontent.

The functions of the various elements shown in the figures can beprovided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as hardwarecapable of executing software in association with appropriate software.When provided by a processor, the functions can be provided by a singlededicated processor, by a single shared processor, or by a plurality ofindividual processors, some of which can be shared. Moreover, explicituse of the term “processor” or “controller” should not be construed torefer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software, and canimplicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (“DSP”)hardware, read-only memory (“ROM”) for storing software, random accessmemory (“RAM”), and non-volatile storage.

Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, can also be included in therealization of the invention. For example, any switches shown in thefigures are conceptual only. Their function may be carried out throughthe operation of program logic, through dedicated logic, through theinteraction of program control and dedicated logic, or even manually,the particular technique being selectable by the implementer as morespecifically understood from the context.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the blockdiagrams presented herein represent conceptual views of illustrativesystem components and/or circuitry embodying the principles of theinvention. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts, flowdiagrams, state transition diagrams, pseudo-code, and the like representvarious processes which may be substantially represented in computerreadable media and so executed by a computer or processor, whether ornot such computer or processor is explicitly shown herein.

In the description which follows, it will be understood that the terms“stereo images” and “stereo views” and the terms “images” and “views”can each be used interchangeably without loss of meaning and without anyintended limitation. Similarly, the terms “3D” and “stereo” may be usedinterchangeably. Finally, the terms “frame” and “picture” may also beused interchangeably.

As mentioned above, logo insertion for a 2D logo into 2D source orcontent is well known and available commercially. FIG. 1 depicts anexemplary set of input and output images for prior art (non-stereo) logoinsertion. That is, FIG. 1 illustrates the operation of a conventionallogo inserter commercially available today, in which an exemplarytriangular logo (FIG. 1(b)) is added to the lower right corner of asource content picture (FIG. 1(a)) to form an overlaid picture (FIG.1(c)). The logo is included in a logo frame with the logo placed is thesame position in which it is to appear in the overlaid picture. The logoframe may be supplied to the logo inserter or composed within the logoinserter using the logo and other associated information. Since thesource content picture and the logo are standard two-dimensional (2D)pictures, there is only a single view presented therein in contrast tostereo content in which two images or views would normally be presentedin the source content picture.

In order to assist in the understanding of this problem presented by theuse of 3D or stereo content, a brief description of 3D formats will begiven below. Stereo 3D displays commonly support input formats where twoviews of a stereo picture are combined into a single combined picture.The two views usually represent left and right images or views, whichare formed by dividing the spatial area of the single content picture orframe between the left and right views. Pictures formed in this mannerare referred to as spatially interleaved pictures. A description andanalysis of the different representations of spatially interleavedpictures can be found in a paper entitled “On Spatially InterleavedPictures SEI Message” by D. Tian et al. presented in the Joint VideoTeam of ISO/IEC MPEG & ITU-T VCEG (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 and ITU-T SG16Q.6) in January 2009 as Document JVT-AD017. This paper is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

Once a spatially-interleaved picture is formed, it can be encoded usingnormal 2D picture and video coding standards, such as JPEG, MPEG-2, andMPEG-4 AVC. The spatially interleaved picture can then be decomposedinto two views, left and right, so that it can be displayed forpresentation and viewing in stereo or 3D.

Several formats for spatially interleaving stereo pictures are known,including a side-by-side composition, a checkerboard patterncomposition, an interlaced composition, a top-bottom composition, and acolor based composition such as an anaglyph, and it is expected thatadditional formats will be suggested in the future. Many of thesecomposition formats are shown simplistically in FIG. 5, while FIG. 2illustrates a more accurate depiction of a side-by-side composition.More specifically, FIG. 2 depicts a set of stereo views combined into asingle stereo (3D) image frame and FIG. 5 depicts a plurality ofexemplary simplified stereo (3D) image formats and the extraction of twoimage views in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIGS. 2 and 5, one of the stereo images or stereo views of a 3D imageframe is depicted in light shading, while the second image or viewassociated with that 3D image frame is depicted in dark shading.

As mentioned above, 3D contents include a pair of images or viewsinitially generated as separate stereo images (or views). Each of theseimages can be encoded, wherein the encoding can include a down-samplingof each stereo image so that the combination of the two images fitswithin a normal stereo content frame size. In order to store ordistribute or display the 3D image, the contents of the two stereoimages; such as the left image and the right image, are combined into asingle image frame. Thus, each 3D source frame represents the entire 3Dimage instead of using two separate stereo images, each in their ownframe or file.

As previously mentioned, FIG. 5 depicts a variety of different 3Dformats across the top row. The formats shown include an interlacedformat, a top-bottom (also known as over-under) format, a side-by-sideformat, and a checkerboard pattern format. The interlaced format shownis for horizontal interlacing. The orthogonal format to horizontalinterlacing, namely, vertical interlacing, can be achieved byinterlacing alternating columns from each image or view instead of thealternating rows. The formats shown in this figure represent anexemplary listing rather than an exhaustive listing of all known 3Dformats. In the embodiment of FIG. 5, one of the stereo images or stereoviews (S₁) of a 3D image is depicted in light shading, while the secondimage or view (S₂) associated with that 3D image is depicted in darkshading.

In related art, the presentation of the formats has been simplified.This simplification has sacrificed accuracy in order to improve theunderstanding about how the left and right views are combined into thefinal 3D image frame. Those persons skilled in this art will appreciatethat the simplification and, therefore the inaccuracy, in FIG. 5 arisesbecause no attempt has been made to depict any down-sampling of the leftand right images that would occur to make the 3D source frame have thesame size regardless of the format used.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the images at the top of FIG. 5 are processedproperly according to their respective formats, it is possible toextract the individual stereo images or views, S₁ and S₂, from thesingle 3D image at the top. These separate views can then be applied toa video processor and display for generating the original 3D picture orframe for viewing by a user. In an actual realization, it will beappreciated that the resolution of each image S₁ and S₂ is no more thanhalf the resolution of the entire original 3D image because each image Sis proportionately down-sampled in order to fit properly within the 3Dstereo frame. Up-sampling by a complementary proportion permitsrestoration of each full size image S following extraction from thestereo 3D frame.

In order to compose the side-by-side format illustrated in FIG. 2 for a3D image frame (FIG. 2(c)), the original left and right view pictures(i.e., FIGS. 2(b) and (c), respectively) are each down-sampledhorizontally. This results in each view having half the horizontalresolution of the respective original view. The two down-sampledpictures are then placed side-by-side into a spatially interleavedpicture, namely, the 3D image frame, which has the same resolution(i.e., number of pixels) as either one of the original left and rightview pictures. In order to extract the two views from the 3D imageframe, the spatially interleaved picture is decomposed into two separateleft and right view pictures based upon the knowledge that the views areformatted side-by-side, and each of the left and right sub-pictures areup-sampled back to their original resolution. A similar processcorrespondingly adjusted for each format can be used for other spatiallyinterleaved formats.

As discovered by the present inventors, a commercially available logoinserter is unable to perform logo insertion properly for stereocontent. Moreover, the use of such a logo inserter with a spatiallyinterleaved picture will cause undesirable effects. In order tounderstand these points, a simple experiment using 3D content in aspatially interleaved picture is shown in FIG. 3. That is, FIG. 3depicts the logo insertion processing of a stereo image frame with aconventional logo and the subsequent extraction of the two stereo viewsincluding the logo in accordance with conventional logo insertionpractices.

It is assumed for the depiction in FIG. 3 that the 3D content isformatted in a side-by-side spatially interleaved picture (FIG. 3(a)) ofthe type shown in FIG. 2. Further, it is assumed that a triangular logo(FIG. 3(b)) is to be inserted into the lower right corner of the contentin combined overlaid picture (FIG. 3(c)). The logo insertion operationcauses the logo to be placed over the 3D content in the conventionalmanner as described above. When this combined picture (FIG. 3(c)) isdecomposed back into two separate views (FIGS. 3(d) and (e)) anddisplayed as stereo, the decomposition will have caused the logo toappear only in the right view (FIG. 3(e)) and not the left view (FIG.3(d)). Moreover, the logo as added to the right view will be distortedin width but not in height. This problem occurs because the conventionallogo inserter simply combines a 2D logo with what is assumed to be a 2Dcontent picture. Since the full size logo is overlaid actually on adown-sampled right view in the spatially interleaved picture of FIG.3(a). When the views are extracted for output and display and when eachview is up-sampled to its full size, the logo is correspondinglyincreased in its width due to the up-sampling of the overlaid rightview.

In order to correct these problems in accordance with the variousembodiments of the present invention described herein, the stereo logoinsertion technique of the present invention first detects the presenceof stereo spatially interleaved pictures in the input video stream (FIG.4(a)). More specifically, FIG. 4 depicts the logo insertion processingof a stereo image frame with a stereo logo and the subsequent extractionof the two stereo views including the logo in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. In this way, the logo inserter candetermine whether a stereo (3D) or non-stereo (e.g., 2D) picture frameis being input for logo insertion. In accordance with embodiments of thepresent invention, detection of spatially interleaved pictures can beperformed in several different ways. For example, information such asmeta-data or the like or information established with a systemdefinition can be extracted and processed by a logo inserter. Thisinformation can accompany the picture as part of the frame formatting.Alternatively and in accordance with an alternate embodiment of thepresent invention, it is also possible that the logo inserter canauto-detect the presence of spatially interleaved pictures by analyzingthe input video picture frames in search of certain characteristics forsuch spatially interleaved pictures.

With respect to the auto-detection embodiment of the present inventionmentioned above, spatially interleaved pictures have edges that areseams that are detectable in certain parts of the spatially interleavedpicture. A vertical seam appears between the left image and the rightimage in the side-by-side format as shown in FIG. 2(c). Horizontal seamsoccur between the images in the top-bottom format as shown in FIG. 5.Combinations of horizontal and vertical seams occur in interlacedformatting of images shown in FIG. 5. In accordance with embodiments ofthe present invention, edge detection can be used to detect these seamsin the spatially interleaved picture. For example, in one embodiment ofthe present invention, a Sobel filter or the like can be used for suchedge detection.

In an alternative embodiment of the present invention forauto-detection, view correlation can be used to detect the spatialinterleaving mode as a side-by-side, over-under, line-interleaved, orcheckerboard pattern. For example, for each interleaving mode, the viewscan be extracted according to the particular interleaving technique andthe mean square error (MSE) between the two views can be computed. Afterthe MSE's for each expected interleaving technique have been collected,a decision of the most likely interleaving technique can be made byselecting as the actual interleaving mode the technique that producedthe lowest MSE. This process can be refined to include a decision thatthe format is 2D by comparing the all the computed MSE's to apredetermined threshold and, if the threshold is exceeded by the MSE'sfor all the modes, then the content picture can be identified as 2Donly.

Techniques for recognizing the presence and format of a 3D imagesuitable for realization of the auto-detection feature herein have beenpresented in detail in several co-pending patent applications assignedto the common assignee hereof. The co-pending applications, which areincorporated by reference herein in their entirety, include: ApllicationNo. 13/514,681 , “Method and Apparatus For Distinguishing A 3D ImageFrom A 2D Image And For Identifying The Presence Of A 3D Image Format ByImage Difference Determination” and Application No. 13/514,622 , “MethodFor Distinguishing A 3D Image From A 2D Image And For Identifying ThePresence Of A 3D Image Format By Feature Correspondence Determination”.In the first related patent application identified above, the methoddisclosed uses a technique relying on image difference to distinguish a3D image from a 2D image. In the latter related patent applicationidentified above, the method disclosed therein relies on featurecorrespondence to distinguish a 3D image from a 2D image. Featurecorrespondence based methods detect features and establish a one-by-onecorrespondence between detected features. In contrast to featurecorrespondence, image difference based methods do not rely on featuresfor proper identification and operation.

If, in accordance with the various embodiments of the present invention,the logo inserter detects that the input video contains stereo spatialinterleaving, the logo is formatted into a spatially interleaved logopicture having a spatial interleaving format identical to the spatialinterleaving format identified for the input video picture frames (FIG.4(b)). In such an embodiment of the present invention, the logo isplaced in each of the two views and then it is subjected to theappropriate amount of down-sampling. For the example shown in FIG. 4,the triangular logo picture would be down-sampled horizontally toachieve the proper side-by-side spatial interleaving. At this point, theinput video and spatially interleaved logo picture can be processedusing a conventional logo insertion technique to create a spatiallyinterleaved overlaid picture as shown in FIG. 4. That is, the properlyformatted logo picture in FIG. 4(b) can be combined in the conventionalmanner with the spatially interleaved source picture in FIG. 4(a) togenerate the overlaid logo-inserted picture in FIG. 4(c). From thefigure, it is clear that the down-sampled logo appears in eachdown-sampled view. Of course, the appearance of the various pictures inFIGS. 4(a)-(c) would be correspondingly changed based on the actualspatial interleaving technique that is used and detected.

When the spatially interleaved overlaid picture from FIG. 4(c) isprocessed for display, the logo will be accurately represented in theleft and right stereo views. For the example shown in FIG. 4, the leftand right views are extracted from the side-by-side formatting andup-sampled to the correct picture frame size (i.e., the same size as theoriginal video frame in FIG. 4(a)). At this point, the left view in FIG.4(d) and the right view in FIG. 4(e) are suitable for stereo display.

In the exemplary embodiment described above, the logo is shown as beinginserted in substantially the same position for each of the two images.It is contemplated that the logo position can be different in each ofthe two images in order to change the depth of the logo when it isviewed with the associated stereo content. Moreover, it is contemplatedthat the depth of the logo can be held at a predetermined constant valuefrom one frame to the next or, in alternate embodiments of the presentinvention, can be varied according to a predetermined pattern ofvariation or according to the depth of the image over which the logo isbeing inserted, for example. In various embodiments of the presentinvention, transparency, size, color, motion, and other parameters ofthe logo can also be determined and/or varied over time or in accordancewith properties of the image over which the logo is being inserted.

While logo insertion has been describe as being performed substantiallyby a logo inserter device above, it is contemplated that logo insertioncan be performed by many different devices, such as a set-top box or aDVD player or the like, prior to display of the stereo images.

FIG. 6 depicts a flow diagram of a method for inserting a logo into avideo image to generate an overlaid image in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. The method 600 of FIG. 6 begins atstep 602 during which the presence of stereo spatially interleavedpictures in the video image is detected, the stereo spatiallyinterleaved pictures for the video image being arranged in a spatiallyinterleaved format. The method 600 then proceeds to step 604.

At step 604, a stereo logo including stereo spatially interleaved logopictures, including a representation of the logo, is generated, thestereo spatially interleaved logo pictures arranged in the spatiallyinterleaved format. The method 600 then proceeds to step 606.

At step 606, the stereo logo and the video image are combined togenerate the overlaid image in the spatially interleaved format. Themethod 600 can then be exited.

Having described various embodiments for a method for stereo logoinsertion (which embodiments are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting), it is noted that modifications and variations can be made bypersons skilled in the art in light of the above teachings. It istherefore to be understood that changes may be made in the particularembodiments of the invention disclosed which are within the scope andspirit of the invention. While the forgoing is directed to variousembodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments ofthe invention may be devised without departing from the basic scopethereof.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for inserting a logo into a videoimage to generate an overlaid image, the method comprising: detecting apresence of stereo spatially interleaved pictures in the video image,the stereo spatially interleaved pictures for the video image beingarranged in a spatially interleaved format; auto-detecting theinterleaved format by analyzing a plurality of selective characteristicsin said images and determining if said characteristics exceed athreshold that identifies them as stereo images, wherein said analysisis done using an edge detection technique; generating a stereo logocomprising stereo spatially interleaved logo pictures including arepresentation of the logo, the stereo spatially interleaved logopictures arranged in said detected spatially interleaved format; andcombining the stereo logo and the video image to generate the overlaidimage in the detected spatially interleaved format.
 2. The method ofclaim 1 comprising: auto-detecting the spatially interleaved format bydetecting at least one seam in said video image.
 3. The method of claim2, wherein the at least one seam includes a horizontal seam and whereinsaid spatially interleaved format includes one of a top-bottom format,an interlaced format, and a checkerboard format.
 4. The method of claim2, wherein the at least one seam includes a vertical seam and whereinsaid spatially interleaved format includes one of a side-by-side format,an interlaced format, and a checkerboard format.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein said analysis is done using a view correlation technique andsaid generating the stereo logo further comprises: down-sampling saidlogo to produce each of the stereo spatially interleaved pictures, saiddown-sampling being based on the spatially interleaved format.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein said down-sampling is a horizontaldown-sampling and wherein said spatially interleaved format includes oneof a side-by-side format, an interlaced format, and a checkerboardformat.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein said down-sampling is avertical down-sampling and wherein said spatially interleaved formatincludes one of a top-bottom format, an interlaced format, and acheckerboard format.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein said generatingthe stereo logo further comprises: positioning said logo at an identicallocation in each of the stereo spatially interleaved pictures.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said generating the stereo logo furthercomprises: positioning said logo in a different location in each of thestereo spatially interleaved pictures.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein said detecting further comprises: identifying said spatiallyinterleaved format for said video image.
 11. A machine-readable mediumhaving one or more executable instructions stored thereon, which whenexecuted by a digital processing system causes the digital processingsystem to perform a method for inserting a logo into a video image togenerate an overlaid image, the method comprising: detecting presence ofstereo spatially interleaved pictures in the video image, the stereospatially interleaved pictures for the video image being arranged in aspatially interleaved format; auto-detecting the interleaved format byanalyzing a plurality of selective characteristics in said images anddetermining if said characteristics exceed a threshold that identifiesthem as stereo images, wherein said analysis is done using an edgedetection technique; generating a stereo logo comprising stereospatially interleaved logo pictures including a representation of thelogo, the stereo spatially interleaved logo pictures arranged in saiddetected spatially interleaved format; and combining the stereo logo andthe video image to generate the overlaid image in the detected spatiallyinterleaved format.